Lady Death cover art

Lady Death

The Memoirs of Stalin's Sniper

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Lady Death

By: Lyudmila Pavlichenko, David Foreman, Martin Pelger, Alla Igorevna Begunova
Narrated by: Emily Durante
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About this listen

In June 1941, when Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, Lyudmila Pavlichenko left her university studies and ignored the offer of a position as a nurse to become one of Soviet Russia's 2,000 female snipers. Less than a year later, she had 309 recorded kills, including 29 enemy sniper kills. She was withdrawn from active duty after being injured. She was also regarded as a key heroic figure for the war effort.

She spoke at rallies in Canada and the US, and the folk singer Woody Guthrie wrote a song, "Killed By A Gun", about her exploits. Her US trip included a tour of the White House with FDR. In November 1942, she visited Coventry and accepted donations of £4,516 from Coventry workers to pay for three X-ray units for the Red Army. She also visited a Birmingham factory as part of her fundraising tour. She never returned to combat but trained other snipers. After the war, she finished her education at Kiev University and began a career as a historian. She died on October 10, 1974, at age 58, and was buried in Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery.

©2015 Alla Igorevna Begunova; David Foreman English-language translation copyright 2018 by Greenhill Books; Foreword copyright 2018 by Martin Pegler (P)2018 Tantor
Armed Forces Eastern Europe Military Military & War Russia Special & Elite Forces Women World War II
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I came in with no real interest in war/snipers/guns but it made everything come alive. Her personality really came through and a sense of how she thought of things.

What a story!

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